wedding wednesdays-DIY cake

I have been talking about all the DIY projects I did for our wedding for the past few weeks. This week is the last DIY project I will be sharing with everyone. It's also not a true DIY since I did not bake the cake myself, but I did go a less traditional, more DIY-type route for our cake.

it took us two full carts for the cupcakes

I started off with buying a bunch of cupcakes from my grocery store's bakery. I know cupcakes have been quite the new thing in wedding cakes, but I liked the idea for several reasons. One is that they're cheap and easy for any bakery to make look good. Two is that I could have different flavors of cake for my guests. Three is that they saved us money at the venue because we didn't require cake cutting and plates, so there was no "cake cutting" fee. I ordered 5 dozen chocolate cupcakes with white cloud frosting, and 5 dozen vanilla cupcakes with white cloud frosting from the bakery. They were only $6.99 a dozen. For less than $70 we were able to have cake for all of our wedding guests, and then some.

vegan cupcake for my sissy

We had one wedding guest that would not be able to eat the cake, regardless of how many we ordered. My sissy is a vegan and so of course I ordered a special vegan cupcake just for her! No, she didn't ask me to, but I love that I was able to get her in on the wedding cake action.

the cupcakes set up on the tiers

We rented a tiered cake holder to display all the cupcakes in the shape of a traditional wedding cake. 

our cake 

We still needed a cake for us to cut in the cake cutting ceremony. I wanted to add some color and have a special cake for us. A friend of mine had just started a cake baking/decorating business and since she was just starting out, I was able to get a small cake for a very good price. And she did an amazing job! We had a vanilla cake with teal fondant with pearl white frosting dots and a scalloped edge on the bottom. I didn't want a traditional cake topper, so I had her craft flowers out of sugar (I think that's what is was) and arrange them on the top like a floral centerpiece. She dusted them with a pearlized food glitter so they were very sparkly. I loved her cake, it looked so awesome! We set it on the top tier and the whole display looked great!

the final wedding cake display

new logo

So I'm really excited to have my logo completed for my new business! I mentioned a while ago that I am getting back into photography and I've decided to try turning it into a business. I'm having so much fun doing photo shoots with my friends out here and am learning so much! Just this past week I received my finalized business logo from my friend, Nikki, at Nikki Marie Photography and Design. I'm in love with it and can't wait to start using it. Here's a little preview of it, as a watermark on one of my photos!

my new logo with some little baby feet

final farewell

A couple weeks ago our friends had their last house party before they move off island. Just this past weekend, we all went out to dinner one last time as they fly out this week. It's sad to see our friends go, but we know they are looking forward to mainland living again. 

the hubby and I

Erica and I, with my husband's photog "skills"

Today I met up with a new friend for some girl time at the Sheraton hotel. We got coffee and just walked around the hotel grounds, it was nice to get out of the house! She also showed me a lot of the hotel that I hadn't seen yet. They have this great vista point over looking Agana Bay and a neat little garden area with lots of plants.

stormy day, view of Agana Bay and Alupat Island from the Sheraton

We have a tropical storm sitting by us again, which always makes for the most beautiful sunsets. So if you aren't envious of island living yet, here's some pictures I grabbed from the car tonight!

driving through Dededo

the sunset from the street by our condo

what I miss

I love living here. I love the speed of island life, I love the constant beauty around me, I love the weather. Just this morning, I was driving home from base and there was so much vibrant color around me. The green palm trees, the red hibiscus, the pink and yellow plumeria, the blue of the sky and the pale turquoise waters. As much as I love it here, there are some things that I miss about home. I know all my friends see my posts on FaceBook or Instagram and tell me to stop rubbing it in, but there are some things about back home that I'm jealous of! What a lot of people don't understand about island living is the lack of options in so many things. Not a lot of companies ship here and there aren't a lot of stores that I was used to living on the mainland. Since I was itching for some Chipotle early, I started thinking of things I miss, and here they are...

~Chipotle--there are a lot of amazing restaurants here, but Chipotle is not one of them. There are very few restaurants that even serve Mexican food in any capacity and they do not compare to any back home. 

~Target--What I would give for just 2 hours in a Target. I miss being able to look for shampoo and having more than a handful of options. Even just cleaning products! The NEX or BX here have a very limited array of options and they can be out of stock of a popular item for quite a long time. Oh and being able to find cute, cheap clothes like at Target? Not an option here. At all. And Target does not ship here.

~clothing--it's so hard to find any cute clothes out here! It's like every store, even the Macy's, is the clearance rack at Ross back home. It's all the things no one wanted and were left over at the end of the season. Even kid's clothing. I'm sure we'll need to buy clothes for the girls while they're here, but everything I've seen is not something I'd want them to wear. Not that the girls should be picky at a young age, but I want them to look semi cute. For me as well though, I want some new summery clothes are it's so hard to find anything cute!

~grocery stores in general--Fresh chicken is something I took for granted. Who knew that some places only have frozen chicken? If I plan to make dinner with chicken (or any poultry) it has to be the day prior so it can defrost. Oh and low-fat options in every item from cheese to ice cream? Not really available out here. Even the Lean Cuisines come in about 10 varieties here. I miss having variety in food!

~Michael's--Michael's was my favorite, but I'd take any craft store out here! I'm pretty much limited to the "craft aisle" at the NEX or BX which is less than a quarter of one side of a store aisle. If that. I was excited to learn that there is one craft store on the island, Ben Franklin, so I went to check it out yesterday. Half the aisles were empty. No joke. I couldn't even find card stock to print on. It was sad.

~Staples--or any office store, really. Do you know how hard it is to find any sort of office supply out here?! I've been looking for flash drives and between the "electronics" section at the BX and NEX, I had incredibly few options. And neither Staples nor Office Depot ship to Guam.

~Starbucks--I did find a coffee shop with good drinks, but it will never be the same as Starbucks. Nor will it be as convenient! 

~my friends--I guess this goes without saying, but I miss all my friends back home! I miss being able to just meet for lunch or go grab a beer when we need to vent. 

Ok, this wasn't meant to be a rant. I just want all my friends and family back home to understand what island living is really like, the good and the bad. At the end of the day, I can see the ocean from every room in my house and get to view the most incredible sunsets from my lanai. It's pretty damn awesome...

finish this v10

This is part of a weekly series I got from Ruthie Hart titled, finish this.

1. I don't get enough... friend time. All my friends are back in California and I've only met a couple people here on Guam. I miss hanging out with my girl friends and enjoying a glass of wine and just talking about whatever.

classy wine night wednesdays

2. My favorite indulgence is... gourmet cupcakes or mini desserts. I love getting a bunch of super decadent desserts and then eating a little bit of each one. I can't do it very often, but I love it!

3. I made a major change in my life when... I joined the military. I was stuck working a minimum wage job, trying to get through school and one day I just made up my mind and did it. It was definitely something I never planned on doing but it changed my life so drastically. There are a lot of opportunities I never would have had if I had never joined. It also led me to meet my awesome husband!

me enlisting over 10 years ago...

4. You should read... Death's Acre by Dr. Bill Bass & Jon Jefferson. It may not be for everyone, but it's one of the books I've read in the past decade or so that I really enjoyed. It talks about the cases of forensic anthropologist, Dr. Bill Bass, and his research project, The Body Farm. It's the book that led me to several classes I took at UC Davis. 

5. My secret ingredient is... fresh ingredients. I love to use fresh herbs in pasta dishes, fresh grated ginger in asian dishes and fresh shallots in anything savory. I think adding a little bit of freshness to compliment the dish goes a long way!

wedding wednesdays-DIY signs

Instead of having a full bar for our guests, we chose to offer certain drinks for our guests to limit our bar tab, but also have a full bar available if the guest wanted to buy their own drinks. We needed a way to let our guests know what beverages we were offering. We needed to have a drink menu set up at the bar. I chose to make my own bar menu out of card stock, our home printer, glue sticks and cheap picture frames. 

close up of the bar menu

I started with a shimmery silver card stock to serve as the outer mat. For the inner mat, I used a matte, slightly textured teal card stock. I then printed our menu on white card stock using our color printer at home. I don't own any design software so all I did was create a menu in Microsoft Word with a font I liked. I did a few different sizes and layering designs before picking which style looked best.

the finished, framed design for the bar menu

Once I had a design I liked, I used a glue stick to attach the 3 pieces of card stock together to form the finished, matted menu. I used a paper cutter to trim the mats down to size. I then found a cheap frame on clearance, and framed it like a picture. That's it!

the instructions for the guest book

For our guest book, we had a unique guest book tree that required a little instruction. I used the same steps I did for the bar menu to create instructions to display next to the guest book. 

These were both a quick, easy DIY project to add a little extra to our wedding!

*I apologize about the images, they're just pictures I had taken while making them last summer. All of our wedding decor is back in California in storage, so I couldn't take better pictures!*

day shift

Since we moved to Guam, George has been on swing shift and would work until midnight to 4am, depending on what was going on at work. Today he started day shift and he has to wake up at 4:30am, a time he's used to going to bed at. Needless to say, it's going to be quite an adjustment in the Engleheart home. Since I'm not working, I try to mirror his schedule so that we can try and have time together since he works so much. Before we moved here, I was always awake before 9am and it was hard for me to stay up past 11pm. Now that I am finally used to swing shift, he switched! So now I sit here, at 9pm, a time I would usually start making dinner and I'm exhausted! So no fancy blog spot for today, I'm going to sleep!

easter weekend

This past weekend was filled with quite a bit of fun activities. On Saturday we went to a friend's birthday party at the beach. It was our first beach party and it was a lot of fun. Our friends had rented a picnic bench/gazebo on one of the beaches in Tumon Bay. They had lots of good local comfort food and of course, nice cold beer! There were also a lot of people that George works with there.

it's not CL smooth, but it'll do

george being george

Sunday was Easter and I started the day with a family photo session. Our friends Erica and Tony are moving off island and they wanted some family photos before they left. I met them down at Asan Beach for a few pictures, and then finished up the session at Latte Stone Park. I ended up with a lot of pictures and narrowed them down to about 40 good ones to edit. I'm really starting to enjoy the photography business. It's more work than I thought, but I have a lot of fun creating memories for people and capturing their personalities in a picture. After the photos, I made George and I brunch at our house. We had homemade biscuits and gravy, sausage and mimosas! He spent the afternoon working on school and finally finished up just in time to enjoy the amazing sunset that evening. 

easter brunch

don't mind the sweaty-ness

perfect ending

happy birthday cole!

Today one of my favorite little boys turns 5! Cole is my best friend, Casey's son. His mom and I were roommates for over a year and in that time I got really close to him. We even had our nightly ritual of flirting just before bath time. Cole is such a sweet and funny kid and I know that with his mom raising him, he'll grow into a respectful and awesome young man. Can't wait to see you this summer and have our Sunday dinners, every Sunday. I love you Cole!!

cuddles on the couch

already a gentleman, pushing my stepdaughter on the quad

you turn around for one second... 

he always loved to help me clean!

laying in my bed, ready to watch tv together

finish this v9

This is part of a weekly series I got from Ruthie Hart titled, finish this.

1. I know this is weird but... I hate wearing shirts. Or anything that covers me from the waist up. I don't know why, but I prefer to just wear shorts or sweats. Obviously, I can't do this in public or when people are around. But when I'm home alone or it's just my husband and I, I'm going shirtless. I lived with my best friend, Casey, for about a year and she was privy to my weird habit and it didn't bother her. However, she's probably the only one of my friends that I could do that around!  

2. When stopped at a stoplight, I... get so bored! I look at my phone and gaze around and try to find something to do for those few minutes or seconds I'm stopped. Luckily, in Guam you can use your phone while driving still, unlike California.

3. My guilty pleasure is... food wise, it's sweets or candy. I love getting a bunch of desserts and making a little plate with samples from each one. My other guilt pleasure is watching shows like 19 Kids and Counting or Teen Mom 2. 

4. My favorite way to unwind is... coming home and getting into comfy clothes, pouring a glass of wine and making dinner. Cooking is relaxing for me!

wedding wednesdays- DIY guestbook

So this DIY project wasn't technically done by me, but by my mother-in-law. Still, it was a DIY project done to add some creativity to our wedding as well as save some money. There have been so many new ideas out there for weddings guestbooks. Brides rarely use the traditional book that guests sign with a fancy pen. I wanted to find something that fit us and that we could display after our wedding. 

our engleheart family swing

After browsing lots of wedding websites, we decided that we wanted a guestbook tree. The idea is that you have a tree printed onto a poster size paper and guests use thumbprints as the leaves and sign their name. My mother-in-law is good with art and design and she was the one who designed the tree for us. We had her add a swing onto the tree so George, the girls and myself could place our thumbprints on the swing. She designed the tree and took it to a printing store to have it printed on a poster size paper. She also chose three different stamps pads in shades of green and teal for the leaves.

the guestbook table

For the display at the wedding, we set the framed tree out with the stamp pads, fine point black permanent markers and some hand wipes. We also had a sign displayed with instructions for our guestbook tree. Guests chose a color and added their thumbprint leaf and then signed their name near the leaf with the pens. They were then able to clean their hands with the hand wipes. 

the finished product, hanging on our wall

We love how the tree turned out and have it displayed in our house. I love that we can look at a part of wedding everyday!

beef & asparagus stir fry

a simple, quick meal

I've always been a creature of habit. I like when things line up and have structure and I like schedules. Even the most mundane things have a structure. For example, grocery shopping. Back in California I would go shopping every Monday after work, like clockwork. Now that we've moved here, I've had to alter my schedule a little. The commissary is closed on Mondays so now I do my grocery shopping on Wednesdays after the gym. Yes, I know how boring this makes me sound. 

Regardless of the day of the week, I always like to find a quick meal to make that night for dinner since grocery shopping can be a big painintheass. That proves to be a little more difficult out here. Living on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere leads to a lack of options and availability when it comes to grocery shopping. When I'm looking to make a quick meal after shopping, I'm limited by what fresh meat they have in stock. Out here, there is no fresh poultry. Only frozen, which takes to long to defrost for that night's dinner. For fresh meat, we're limited to beef or pork. Even then, if you go on a busy day, your options are limited to what is left and looks decent. 

A few weeks ago I was shopping and planned on making something with ground beef as my quick dinner. Of course, they were out of ground beef and the only decent cut of meat left was some thin sliced beef for carne asada. I already had some veggies in my cart and decided I'd figure out something to make with it all once I got home. 

Here's the recipe I came up with for dinner that night. I used random veggies I had bought along with whatever I had at home. I cook by eyeballing my measurements so all of these ingredients are an approximation of what I used. You can adjust each one to your own tastes.

for the stir fry:

3/4 lb of beef, thinly sliced

1 bundle of asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces

1/2 red bell pepper, cut into thin slices

1/2 yellow onion, cut into thin slices

8 oz mushrooms, sliced

for the sauce:

1.5 tbsp hoison sauce

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 inch fresh ginger, finely grated (I use a microplane)

1 tsp chili garlic sauce (found in the Asian foods aisle)

1.5 tbsp low sodium soy sauce

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp honey

1 tbsp water

1. In a small bowl, mix all the ingredients for the sauce, set aside for later

2. Heat a little canola oil in a wok or pan over high heat. Add the meat and stir fry a few minutes until browned and just barely cooked through. Remove from pan and set aside

3. Add all the veggies to the same pan and stir fry a few minutes until crisp tender

4. Add the beef back to the pan with the veggies, stir to combine. Add the sauce and stir fry for about a minute until everything is coated and the sauce is heated. Serve it over rice, or just eat it as is. Enjoy!

eat with chopsticks to feel fancy

cupcakes and goodbyes

Since I've been on island, I've only really connected with one girl. She's my best friend out here and she just got told that they're moving off island. This past weekend her and her husband had their going away party. Since we've moved here, we've been to several of their house parties and they always involve lots of food, beer pong and some inappropriateness between Erica and I. Nothing dirty, get your minds out of the gutter, but we usually end up having the most random conversations. Ones that I used to have with some of my closest friends back in California. I'm really going to miss her when she leaves.

erica and I trying to get a decent picture

The weather this weekend was gorgeous, but of course, George had to work all weekend so we didn't get to go out together and enjoy it. I did manage to catch a few pictures of the sunset though.

both of these taken right from my lanai

On one of my trips down to the grocery store down the street, I noticed the little coffee shop had finally opened. We don't have any Starbuck's or big chain coffee shops here, but there is a local shop called Infusion. They opened up a little store within our grocery store and serve drinks and treats. Well, lucky for me, they serve these little gourmet desserts! One of my favorite treats back home was the mini desserts at Bel Air and I haven't found anything like that out here. Until now! I stopped by the store yesterday and got myself a little pumpkin cheesecake cupcake. Sooooooo yummy!

desserts are my weakness

finish this v8

This is a weekly series I got from Ruthie Hart titled,  finish this.

1. When I need help with life's mysteries, I turn to... either my husband or my dad. Both seem to know more about everything than I do. I used to go to my dad for a lot, but now I can ask my husband for help too. I still go to my dad for any legal/ethical advice though! I'm fortunate to have two men in my life who have most of the answers!

2. My next challenge is figuring out... how to be a full time stay at home step-mommy to my 2 step-daughters. They will be out here all summer and I'll be lucky enough to stay home with them! I'm super excited, but I know it'll be a new challenge for me.

3. My latest victory... completing my first real photo shoot. I decided to start a photography business since moving out here and am slowly developing my skill and technique. Just this past Monday I did my first shoot and am in the process of editing the pictures. Looking back at the pictures I took, I'm pretty proud of myself and how professional the images look!

4. My high heels are... in storage back home in California. I knew I'd be living in flip flops here in Guam and wouldn't need them! 

wedding wednesdays-DIY centerpieces

Centerpieces can range from very ornate and expensive to nonexistent. I wanted something simple and budget friendly, but I still wanted them to catch the eye of our guests. Some brides decide to forgo centerpieces and flowers, but I wanted flowers and decorations, without breaking the bank. I did a lot of browsing on Pinterest to come up with ideas and ended up with centerpieces that were sparkly, simple and fit within our budget.

my centerpiece design

The first thing I did was come up with a design. I wanted a round mirror as the base, with a square vase in the center filled with grayish toned rocks and a large white hydrangea. I also wanted turquoise glitter square votives with candles to surround each vase. The pure white of the hydrangea would draw the eye, while the glittered votives would add some color. With the mirror underneath, the reflection from the glitter and candles would add lots of light and sparkle. Also, the grayish rocks in the vase would compliment the silver and gray tones used throughout our wedding as well as add a natural look.

the mirror, votives and vase

I first looked for the vases and found the ones I liked, but they were $12 each! I asked around and luckily our friends, the Archers, had vases from their wedding that we could borrow for free. They were rectangle and slightly smaller than the square ones I wanted, but they had a similar look and free is always good! Then we looked into the hydrangeas. At first we looked into fake ones, since we assumed fake would be cheaper. For 1 hydrangea, it was $10, and we could get by with 1 per table. Then we talked to our florist and they were only $6 a stem and they were incredibly full and 1 per table was more than enough. Needless to say, we went with the real ones! Now onto the rocks. I found a pack of rocks at Michael's that were perfect and 1 pack would fill 2 vases. I decided to wait to buy until their next sale came out and luckily they went on sale for $1 each (originally $2.99 each)! I looked for mirrors, and not too many places carried them, and they were expensive. I looked into a party rental store and they rented large round mirrors for $2 each, so we rented those!

the gorgeous, huge hydrangeas

 the plain square votives I used

While the centerpieces were designed and put together by myself (with the help from my lovely bridesmaids!) the main DIY part of these were the votives. You can find plain votives and colored ones, but it was really hard to find glittery turquoise ones so I ended up making my own. Looking around town, even plain square votives could be as expensive as $4 each. I wanted 4 per table, plus more to line the head table. That was going to get pricey. I searched online and found some in the right size and shape, and they even came with candles to put inside! I bought a pack of 72 votives and candles for $68. I still had to add some glitter. I bought some turquoise glitter and Mod Podge from Michael's and decorated them myself. The glitter was $5 a jar, and I used 3 jars. The Mod Podge was $6 and I nearly used the entire bottle. I painted the inside of the votive with a layer of Mod Podge, dumped glitter inside and shook it (covered with a plastic bag) and then dumped the excess glitter back into the jar. Once they dried, I sealed the glitter with another layer of Mod Podge.

the votives post my DIY glitter-ification

Here's the price breakdown of my centerpieces:

vases: free x 1 per table = $0
hydrangea: $6 x 1 per table = $6
rocks: $1 x 1/2 bag per table = $0.50
mirrors: $2 x 1 per table = $2
votives: $68 for 72 (about $1 each) x 4 per table = ~$4
glitter and Mod Podge: divided out per table it was about = ~$1.20

total cost for each centerpiece = ~$13.70

the final result

Not bad, right? By renting items, shopping around and doing a little DIY, we were able to have gorgeous centerpieces that fit in our budget!